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Published 28th September 2018

Vol 59 No 19

Nigeria

Big business gets stuck into the elections

President Muhammadu Buhari. Pic: Michael Kappeler/DPA/PA Images
President Muhammadu Buhari. Pic: Michael Kappeler/DPA/PA Images

A string of corporate fraud cases is stirring up partisan rivalries ahead of next year’s presidential vote

Prosecutors in Milan began to set out their case against oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's ENI in court on 26 September. Both companies are charged with paying over US$1 billion in bribes via Nigerian officials to secure OPL 245, one of the biggest oilfields in Africa. Although the case may drag on for years through the appeals system and higher courts, it could damage reputations and change the way companies operate in Nigeria and beyond.

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Investors weigh rescue plan

A presidential fightback against lingering effects of recession and Zuma-era sleaze triggers mixed reactions in the business world

With the election of President Cyril Ramaphosa in February, South Africa experienced waves of 'Ramaphoria', following the hollowing out of the state under President Jacob Zuma and ...

Populists hack at the budget

Backbench Jubilee and Nasa MPs are ganging up against revenue plans by President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga

On Tuesday 18 September, President Uhuru Kenyatta's governing Jubilee party and the opposition (at least in name) National Super Alliance (Nasa), led by Raila Odinga, held separate...

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THE INSIDE VIEW

First came the shocking but not wholly surprising news on 24 September that José Filomeno dos Santos, better known as Zenú, son of the former President, José Eduardo dos Santos, was being held in preventive detention in connection with a US$1.5 billion corruption case. Zenú was appointed by his father in 2013 as Chief Executive of the Fundo Soberano de Angola with some $5bn of state funds.

Sacked from the Fund in January by new President Joã...

First came the shocking but not wholly surprising news on 24 September that José Filomeno dos Santos, better known as Zenú, son of the former President, José Eduardo dos Santos, was being held in preventive detention in connection with a US$1.5 billion corruption case. Zenú was appointed by his father in 2013 as Chief Executive of the Fundo Soberano de Angola with some $5bn of state funds.

Sacked from the Fund in January by new President João Lourenço, Zenú was charged in May with fraud on a $500m transfer of cash from the central bank in Luanda to a company in Britain. Angolan-Swiss businessman Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, an asset manager with the fund, is also being held in Luanda.

According to filings from the Panama Papers leak in May 2016, Bastos de Morais earned over $41m in just 20 months for managing the fund's assets.

How far might this probe go? Prosecutor-General Alvaro da Silva João insists the state has 'sufficient evidence' of Dos Santos and Bastos de Morais's involvement in 'acts of corruption'. Anti-corruption campaigner Rafael Marques de Morais reports that Zenú had a plan to raise a $30bn investment fund, managed by his company Mais Financial Services and backed by his father. The former central bank governor Valter Filipe, has been sacked and is being held responsible for ordering the $500m transfer. The question now is from whom did Filipe get his orders.

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No cash, no peace

The new agreement between the warring parties has ambition but twice-bitten donors won’t fund it. Few believe it has a future

It's official: the peace agreement has been signed, all protocols observed, the countdown begun. With all parties supposedly on board, a Revitalised Transitional Government of Nati...

Man in a hurry

Julius Maada Bio has promised much on education, and the anti-corruption bandwagon is already rolling

Determined to make his mark early, President Julius Maada Bio has promised a revolution in transport, in education and in tackling corruption. As well as promising a US$1.3 billion...

Money worries

The federal patchwork is barely holding together while a new currency launches. Farmajo's absence in New York is raising questions

The Finance Minister of the federal government, Abdirahman Bayle, believed he had good reason to congratulate himself at the end of a week of talks with the International Monetary ...

Rallies shatter fragile peace

Ethnic killings, shootings by police and mass detentions rock Addis Ababa as Abiy’s democratic openings trigger ferment

Ethiopia's rulers scheduled the triumphant return of two diametrically opposed political movements a week apart in a move that spoke of either breezy confidence or naivety. The eve...

Museveni to tough it out

The President is taking no chances and making no concessions. He is mobilising 24,000 reservists as popular protests continue

Thousands of new security personnel are being deployed to meet the threat of mass civil unrest after the triumphant return to Kampala of Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine to huge cro...

Bonds crash as donors cut funding

Cuts in aid payments are compounding the debt crisis as the government loses credibility after bogus denials

President Edgar Lungu's sacking on 19 September of Minister of Community Development and Social Services Emerine Kabanshi – at the centre of the row over the fraud in payment...

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Pointers

Sisi in the city

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's appearance in New York for the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly proved a rare diplomatic tour de force for Egypt's government. A...

Graft-busters busted

Shortly after coming to power in November 2015, President John Magufuli sacked Edward Hoseah, long-serving director general of the Prevention and Combatting Corruption Bureau (PCCB...

Brussels bridles Beijing

The promise of an EU-Africa trade pact as part of a new 'partnership of equals' between the two continents was one of few surprises in Jean-Claude Juncker's last State of the Union...

EU auditors slam spending

The financing of the African Union has always been problematic for donors and the secretariat alike, with the goal of self-financing as distant now as ever. Despite member states s...

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